Bookishness
How the Kindle is ugly and feels wrong, let aside the subjectivity of beauty or taste.
Quotes form the Newsweek article :
"If you're going to do something like this, you have to be as good as the book in a lot of respects," says Bezos.
First, it must project an aura of bookishness; it should be less of a whizzy gizmo than an austere vessel of culture.
There's a little styling going on here.
While the overall shape seems to be well proportioned and balanced (considering the plain volume alone), I don't get the reason of being of these angled cuts. Does it add comfort when holding the device or interacting with it ? Does it help to frame the text better ? Does it relate to some cultural meaning ? As from today, I'd like to get a clue. To me this is just a subjective decision, style for the sake of it, and it hangs in there as a hair on the soup. Same feeling about the progressively slanted keys of the keyboard. Style is good, but it needs to be backed up with purpose.
ASSymmetry
I don't have anything against asymmetrical designs, and as said above, the volume itself is ok to me. But having symmetric elements (the keyboard and the screen) that weight the most visually included un-centered (left aligned) in an asymmetric shape can only result as a mess. If you choose asymmetry, stick with it. For example, don't make a symmetric keyboard when you can do an asymmetric one. But first, don't choose it when the purpose of the object is to display a book page that looks like it's having a center line (apparently they acknowledged this fact by placing the logo centered under the screen).
Let's go random
Why the hell would you formalize a linear notion such as previous/next in a non linear way ? I've been staring at this picture for a long time and I simply don't get it.
A little more visual noise, while we're at it
Somebody explain me why this separation on the right of the screen couldn't have been integrated in the screen as a graphic element rather than a plastic stripe. Does it have a function other than this one ?
The comfort zones
I don't know for the guys at Amazon, but when I read a book, I like to grab it full hand. More importantly, when I lay on a couch or in a bed with a good book, I tend to change the way I hold it every now and then because it gets uncomfortable at some point. The picture above is highlighting the areas where you have the option to hold the Kindle without interacting with it. It is very little, far from being enough. Reading on the Kindle, you'll have this underlying stress of being careful to do not hit a button unintentionally, while a book while let you dive 100% in the text.
The discomfort zones
Speaking of reading comfort, here are highlighted the visual features that are distracting the eyes of the reader from the text. Far too much.
Established conventions
Usually, the left is associated with the past, and the right is associated with the future. Instead of having 2 sets of previous page / next page buttons, one on each side of the screen, why didn't they place the previous page button on the left of the screen, and the next page button on the opposite side ? Probably because they thought that lefties would be lost without a next page button on "their" left side of the screen I guess. Amazon is supposed to have great knowledge in the field of user interface, and I don't understand why they validated choices like this.
♦ Cover by default. A screen needs protection, and in the case of a book (electronic or not), a cover has a semiotic meaning. It's what distinguishes a pile of bound paper sheets from a book. So if you try to achieve some sort of bookishness, start from here.
♦ Get rid of the unnecessary elements like the keyboard, the logo or the "next" and "previous" writings (make them obvious instead) from the face where the text is displayed. This is a device which purpose is to stage text from an author and allow the reader to dive into it. Respect the text.
♦ Match the color and finish of the casing surrounding the screen with the ones of the e-ink screen to get closer to what happens on a book page. Making the sides darker will also help to get a better result by highlighting the "page" in the device.
♦ Make it waterproof. At least as some cameras like the Pentax K10D are. So you can feel comfortable reading the morning news while drinking your coffee.
♦ Here is a sketch of a possible scenario, assuming that touch screen are not available for e-ink displays.
a : previous page button.
b : next page button.
c : insert bookmark button.
d : book index, library, notes & bookmarks, volume, shop and news buttons.
e : slide out keyboard for additional controls and input.
f : scroll wheel to navigate menus or flick through pages while reading.
The cover would act as a power button. When it's open, it's on.
The connection points (usb, power, sound) would be accessible when the keyboard is slid out.
Quotes form the Newsweek article :
"If you're going to do something like this, you have to be as good as the book in a lot of respects," says Bezos.
First, it must project an aura of bookishness; it should be less of a whizzy gizmo than an austere vessel of culture.
Form factors
There's a little styling going on here.
While the overall shape seems to be well proportioned and balanced (considering the plain volume alone), I don't get the reason of being of these angled cuts. Does it add comfort when holding the device or interacting with it ? Does it help to frame the text better ? Does it relate to some cultural meaning ? As from today, I'd like to get a clue. To me this is just a subjective decision, style for the sake of it, and it hangs in there as a hair on the soup. Same feeling about the progressively slanted keys of the keyboard. Style is good, but it needs to be backed up with purpose.
ASSymmetry
I don't have anything against asymmetrical designs, and as said above, the volume itself is ok to me. But having symmetric elements (the keyboard and the screen) that weight the most visually included un-centered (left aligned) in an asymmetric shape can only result as a mess. If you choose asymmetry, stick with it. For example, don't make a symmetric keyboard when you can do an asymmetric one. But first, don't choose it when the purpose of the object is to display a book page that looks like it's having a center line (apparently they acknowledged this fact by placing the logo centered under the screen).
Let's go random
Why the hell would you formalize a linear notion such as previous/next in a non linear way ? I've been staring at this picture for a long time and I simply don't get it.
A little more visual noise, while we're at it
Somebody explain me why this separation on the right of the screen couldn't have been integrated in the screen as a graphic element rather than a plastic stripe. Does it have a function other than this one ?
Ergonomics
The comfort zones
I don't know for the guys at Amazon, but when I read a book, I like to grab it full hand. More importantly, when I lay on a couch or in a bed with a good book, I tend to change the way I hold it every now and then because it gets uncomfortable at some point. The picture above is highlighting the areas where you have the option to hold the Kindle without interacting with it. It is very little, far from being enough. Reading on the Kindle, you'll have this underlying stress of being careful to do not hit a button unintentionally, while a book while let you dive 100% in the text.
The discomfort zones
Speaking of reading comfort, here are highlighted the visual features that are distracting the eyes of the reader from the text. Far too much.
Established conventions
Usually, the left is associated with the past, and the right is associated with the future. Instead of having 2 sets of previous page / next page buttons, one on each side of the screen, why didn't they place the previous page button on the left of the screen, and the next page button on the opposite side ? Probably because they thought that lefties would be lost without a next page button on "their" left side of the screen I guess. Amazon is supposed to have great knowledge in the field of user interface, and I don't understand why they validated choices like this.
Some ideas
♦ Cover by default. A screen needs protection, and in the case of a book (electronic or not), a cover has a semiotic meaning. It's what distinguishes a pile of bound paper sheets from a book. So if you try to achieve some sort of bookishness, start from here.
♦ Get rid of the unnecessary elements like the keyboard, the logo or the "next" and "previous" writings (make them obvious instead) from the face where the text is displayed. This is a device which purpose is to stage text from an author and allow the reader to dive into it. Respect the text.
♦ Match the color and finish of the casing surrounding the screen with the ones of the e-ink screen to get closer to what happens on a book page. Making the sides darker will also help to get a better result by highlighting the "page" in the device.
♦ Make it waterproof. At least as some cameras like the Pentax K10D are. So you can feel comfortable reading the morning news while drinking your coffee.
♦ Here is a sketch of a possible scenario, assuming that touch screen are not available for e-ink displays.
a : previous page button.
b : next page button.
c : insert bookmark button.
d : book index, library, notes & bookmarks, volume, shop and news buttons.
e : slide out keyboard for additional controls and input.
f : scroll wheel to navigate menus or flick through pages while reading.
The cover would act as a power button. When it's open, it's on.
The connection points (usb, power, sound) would be accessible when the keyboard is slid out.
Labels: communication, eBook, interface, Product design, typography
posted by thibaut # 1:56 PM 
Comments:
Links to this post:
<< Home
I played with a colleague's Kindle the other day, and among many things that just felt wrong, one of the major things was, as mentioned, the placement of the next/previous buttons. I couldn't hold the damned thing like a book... I kept hitting next errantly. And the bizarre way the edges are sloped... arg. The tech behind the thing is pretty sharp (though it does feel a bit like a glorified Etch-a-sketch), but so many things feel underwhelming.
Don't get me started on the miniscule "Home" button that just blends in with all the other angled keyboard keys...
Don't get me started on the miniscule "Home" button that just blends in with all the other angled keyboard keys...
Regardless of "right next, left previous", I think you need next/prev buttons on each side to enable one handed page-flipping. Who wants to bring their other hand to a device just to turn the page? That being said, smaller and more consistently-sized buttons would be nice.
Also, regarding the "indicator lcd" to the right of the screen, it's a completely separate display that is functionally different from the main e-ink display. Since e-ink doesn't refresh fast enough for a "cursor" to be useful, you need another display for this function. Still, the cursor display should be placed as close as possible to the display, and it seems artificially spaced further from the e-ink display.
I really like the cover idea though!
Also, regarding the "indicator lcd" to the right of the screen, it's a completely separate display that is functionally different from the main e-ink display. Since e-ink doesn't refresh fast enough for a "cursor" to be useful, you need another display for this function. Still, the cursor display should be placed as close as possible to the display, and it seems artificially spaced further from the e-ink display.
I really like the cover idea though!
# posted by 
: November 23, 2007 7:30 PM
: November 23, 2007 7:30 PM
At it's high price point and new tech status this is initially a high end geek item. And the fact they did not design this with any sort of luxury wow is a massive failing that surprises me. Your critiques are excellent. And I agree that the lack of a cover is surprising as it should have looked like a luxury high tech book rather than the lid of a Copt machine.
Your sketch is good as it cleans the device towards of's primary focus of reading -- I have no idea why they didn't do something like this. The keyboard seems like the primary focus with their design and it's really a secondary need.
Your sketch is good as it cleans the device towards of's primary focus of reading -- I have no idea why they didn't do something like this. The keyboard seems like the primary focus with their design and it's really a secondary need.
I really like your ideas, and I think amazon would have done great to implement them. Problem is that Bezos identified what a good ebook reader should be correctly, however, the implementation failed miserably. With all the visual noise on the Kindle, it is only good as a newspaper/blog reader, and fails as a novel/long book reader.
It really suffers from featureitis. Although, a lot of geeks I think are buying it because they think that it will magically make bigger readers out of them. I bet that it is just gonna be a portable engadget reader.
It really suffers from featureitis. Although, a lot of geeks I think are buying it because they think that it will magically make bigger readers out of them. I bet that it is just gonna be a portable engadget reader.
# posted by : November 23, 2007 7:48 PM
: November 23, 2007 7:48 PM
The Kindle does, in fact, include a cover: http://content.zdnet.com/2347-10532_22-176546-176557.html?seq=11
It's a shame they failed with the design of the Kindle. The idea is great. I mean, the fact that I can purchase books and read wikipedia anywhere, for free, is great. I wish articles like this would, at least, conclude that the Kindle team's heart is in the right place, and it's the implementation that is misguided. I'm guessing version 2 will address a lot of people's gripes. This is Amazon's first device, and I'm betting they're determined to get it right.
A touch screen would completely clean this device up, and I think it's really the only thing worth researching. The device needs to be cheaper too, obviously.
Amazon's Kindle page mentions Gutenberg more than once, but his invention made books extremely accessible and much much cheaper than before. I think it's a mistake to try and compare this device to something as epic as moveable type. I understand what they're trying to say, but the device really isn't there yet.
It's a shame they failed with the design of the Kindle. The idea is great. I mean, the fact that I can purchase books and read wikipedia anywhere, for free, is great. I wish articles like this would, at least, conclude that the Kindle team's heart is in the right place, and it's the implementation that is misguided. I'm guessing version 2 will address a lot of people's gripes. This is Amazon's first device, and I'm betting they're determined to get it right.
A touch screen would completely clean this device up, and I think it's really the only thing worth researching. The device needs to be cheaper too, obviously.
Amazon's Kindle page mentions Gutenberg more than once, but his invention made books extremely accessible and much much cheaper than before. I think it's a mistake to try and compare this device to something as epic as moveable type. I understand what they're trying to say, but the device really isn't there yet.
# posted by : November 23, 2007 8:42 PM
: November 23, 2007 8:42 PM
I bought the Sony Reader when it came out and should receive my Kindle today.
The nice thing about the Sony is that it has a feeling of luxury to it...leather-ish cover, chromed edges, dark colors simple buttons. The second revision refined it a bit more and sells for $279, albeit without the EVDO or web browsing features.
The nice thing about the Sony is that it has a feeling of luxury to it...leather-ish cover, chromed edges, dark colors simple buttons. The second revision refined it a bit more and sells for $279, albeit without the EVDO or web browsing features.
Thanks for the excellent analysis - I nominate you for designer of Kindle 2.0!
I do have a guess as to why the progress bar is separate from the main display: cost. High resolution e-ink displays cost more than low resolution ones. Did you ever see Motorola's cheap dumb cell phone with an e-ink display? (Technology Review article) If you look at the display on that phone, you'll see Motorola went back to the old school segmented displays, presumably because it costs more to produce an e-ink display with all those pixels.
So, I'd guess that the progress bar has much lower resolution pixels, designed to be used only as a progress bar, and so it's actually a separate display. Since they're separate pieces of plastic, you have to assemble them separately, hence the awkward plastic in the middle. Anyway, just my guess.
I do have a guess as to why the progress bar is separate from the main display: cost. High resolution e-ink displays cost more than low resolution ones. Did you ever see Motorola's cheap dumb cell phone with an e-ink display? (Technology Review article) If you look at the display on that phone, you'll see Motorola went back to the old school segmented displays, presumably because it costs more to produce an e-ink display with all those pixels.
So, I'd guess that the progress bar has much lower resolution pixels, designed to be used only as a progress bar, and so it's actually a separate display. Since they're separate pieces of plastic, you have to assemble them separately, hence the awkward plastic in the middle. Anyway, just my guess.
When I saw the Kindle keyboard this was my first thought:
They keys must be angled because they assumed typing would occur while holding the Kindle with both hands at the bottom, typing with only two thumbs. No batter which key is being pressed by the thumb, the long axis of the key will be perpendicular to the long axis of the thumb, arguably increasing the chances of hitting the key correctly.
They keys must be angled because they assumed typing would occur while holding the Kindle with both hands at the bottom, typing with only two thumbs. No batter which key is being pressed by the thumb, the long axis of the key will be perpendicular to the long axis of the thumb, arguably increasing the chances of hitting the key correctly.
# posted by : November 24, 2007 12:54 AM
: November 24, 2007 12:54 AM
Great ideas!
The cover as you've illustrated might be a little awkward. My feeling is to fold the cover behind the device. However, with the spine there's going to be a bit of cover sticking out on the left or right side which may not lend to easy holding.
An easy though not as thematically nice solution would be for the cover to open from the top edge.
Nevertheless, the cover is minor compared to all the other flaws of the existing device.
The cover as you've illustrated might be a little awkward. My feeling is to fold the cover behind the device. However, with the spine there's going to be a bit of cover sticking out on the left or right side which may not lend to easy holding.
An easy though not as thematically nice solution would be for the cover to open from the top edge.
Nevertheless, the cover is minor compared to all the other flaws of the existing device.
# posted by : November 24, 2007 12:58 AM
: November 24, 2007 12:58 AM
I definitely agree that there needs to be some changes to the design. It actually feels like Amazon wound up shipping the prototype version instead of a 'final' version (perhaps they ran out of time?). However, I do have some minor quibbles with your suggestions. For one, if there is a cover, it needs to be able to fold all the way around to the back. Having it stuck out to the side would make it difficult to hold comfortably. Also, I'd put the fwd/next buttons on the _lower_ half of the unit and not the upper half. This way, you can flick the button with your thumb and not have to move your hands.
# posted by : November 24, 2007 6:26 AM
: November 24, 2007 6:26 AM
Great article. What a shockingly ugly and badly designed device this is! I wonder how long it will be before we get the iTunes book store and a tablet style device from Apple?
There's plenty of good-thinking in the Kindle: one-handed page turning, indicator not being part of the e-ink to avoid that ugly page flash, slightly ergonomic keypad to match thumb angles, softened corners for where people grip on rest corners on themselves.
The apparent problem is that there doesn't seem to be a design concept that unifies all these elements together into a single device so the whole thing seems rather Frankenstein, even if it *does* have all the traits the properly-assembled device would do. But again, I suspect these are engineering tradeoffs -- putting in EVDO and internal antennas, metering battery life, the expectations of the main audience, etc. -- you don't spend years designing a device without touching on the issues you covered in this article.
Everyone knows what an e-book device *should* be like, the problem is that the tech isn't up to speed yet. So do you start slow and focus on reproducing the real book feel (and miss features that makes people actually consider moving from paper) or do you go straight for the features, making a more awkward device (i.e. this puppy)? Considering the success of the e-book makers that played it safe, I figure Amazon did the right thing.
The apparent problem is that there doesn't seem to be a design concept that unifies all these elements together into a single device so the whole thing seems rather Frankenstein, even if it *does* have all the traits the properly-assembled device would do. But again, I suspect these are engineering tradeoffs -- putting in EVDO and internal antennas, metering battery life, the expectations of the main audience, etc. -- you don't spend years designing a device without touching on the issues you covered in this article.
Everyone knows what an e-book device *should* be like, the problem is that the tech isn't up to speed yet. So do you start slow and focus on reproducing the real book feel (and miss features that makes people actually consider moving from paper) or do you go straight for the features, making a more awkward device (i.e. this puppy)? Considering the success of the e-book makers that played it safe, I figure Amazon did the right thing.
What an interesting analysis. I suggest they get rid of the labels "next" and "previous" completely. Just use arrows pointing left and right. What if someone was reading a text in a right to left oriented language like Japanese or Arabic? The keys would be indicating the opposite directions for the text. It might still be a good idea to have buttons on both sides, in the upper corners maybe, to allow flipping either direction without reaching over.
And the keyboard DOES need to go. It is the single most hideous and obtrusive element of the Kindle's design. It only spoils the aesthetic connection between the Kindle and the traditional book (that the content is there, and nothing more if can be helped).
And the keyboard DOES need to go. It is the single most hideous and obtrusive element of the Kindle's design. It only spoils the aesthetic connection between the Kindle and the traditional book (that the content is there, and nothing more if can be helped).
# posted by : November 25, 2007 6:13 AM
: November 25, 2007 6:13 AM
@ Jason Kurczak : with existing books, I usually bring my hand to the upper corner of the page so I can flick it, and it doesn't seem to alter the pleasure I get reading. My bet is that it's less of a hassle to move your hand to turn a page than to hit a button with no intention while holding the reader, as "gb" pointed out. Thank you very much for the precision about the secondary display, but I still think this is something that is damaging the reading experience, or at least the aesthetics of the device.
@Anonymous #2 : the cover is indeed included in the box, but what I wanted to say was cover "built in", not something that feels like an add on. It should be part of the design so you don't see two objects but one. I don't see why it should be cheaper, the price is ok to me, considering the service it offers.
@Spriggana : as seen on this video, this isn't really a touch screen as you need a special pen for the surface to understand the input. Using a stylus to write notes is ok, but to flick pages, not so much...
@Anonymous #3 : at this scale, it's more important to have shapes that will be grabbed by your finger pulp than shapes that will adapt to the volume of your finger pulp (I experienced this working on lab tools for biochemists). So the angle doesn't make much sense to this regard. The usable consequence of this angle might be to have a sharper edge to be grabbed by the thumb, but I'd have to see it by myself to be sure.
@Teradome : the lack of a design concept is indeed the problem, and it's a big aouch for the dev team. But I wouldn't say it's the engineers or the designers who made it the way it is, I'd say it's the person(s) who signed this off. Probably Amazon did the right thing, they have much more input than we have on the issue after all. But still, I cannot refrain a this could have been so much better feeling.
@Anonymous #2 : the cover is indeed included in the box, but what I wanted to say was cover "built in", not something that feels like an add on. It should be part of the design so you don't see two objects but one. I don't see why it should be cheaper, the price is ok to me, considering the service it offers.
@Spriggana : as seen on this video, this isn't really a touch screen as you need a special pen for the surface to understand the input. Using a stylus to write notes is ok, but to flick pages, not so much...
@Anonymous #3 : at this scale, it's more important to have shapes that will be grabbed by your finger pulp than shapes that will adapt to the volume of your finger pulp (I experienced this working on lab tools for biochemists). So the angle doesn't make much sense to this regard. The usable consequence of this angle might be to have a sharper edge to be grabbed by the thumb, but I'd have to see it by myself to be sure.
@Teradome : the lack of a design concept is indeed the problem, and it's a big aouch for the dev team. But I wouldn't say it's the engineers or the designers who made it the way it is, I'd say it's the person(s) who signed this off. Probably Amazon did the right thing, they have much more input than we have on the issue after all. But still, I cannot refrain a this could have been so much better feeling.
>>Who wants to bring their other hand to a device just to turn the page?<<
You mean the way people do with the device called the "book"?
You mean the way people do with the device called the "book"?
# posted by : November 26, 2007 4:11 AM
: November 26, 2007 4:11 AM
I agree with a lot of your points about the layout and design of the Kindle, and I think your redesign is pretty good. Instead of having a pop-out hard keyboard though, a soft keyboard integrated with the cover would work better, I think. You could run the ribbon connector in between the two layers of cover material and have it slot into a port at the back or bottom of the main Kindle body.
# posted by : November 26, 2007 4:55 AM
: November 26, 2007 4:55 AM
Why the hell would you formalize a linear notion such as previous/next in a non linear way?
That is such a simple observation and just so right. And I don't mean simple as in obvious, I mean it in the same way as E=mc^2 shows elegant simplicity. It's "simply" a truth, and the person who ignored it in the design, I mean, what were they thinking?
That is such a simple observation and just so right. And I don't mean simple as in obvious, I mean it in the same way as E=mc^2 shows elegant simplicity. It's "simply" a truth, and the person who ignored it in the design, I mean, what were they thinking?
Since reading is (mostly) better in a portrait orientation and data entry is (mostly) better in a landscape orientation, why not have the slide-out keyboard come out of the side of the device supporting a landscape orientation. Pull the keyboard out and the screen would switch orientation.
Such a keyboard could be wider, creating more room for keys.
Such a keyboard could be wider, creating more room for keys.
I prefer the Kindle in my hand to your contemplated redesign. The big buttons are a dream to one (like me) with severe repetitive stress disorders. I hold my kindle in my hand from the underside, looking down on it. The material in the bottom grips to my hand; I don't need to "grasp" it -- I think that's old behavior from those used to holding books to keep the pages together. The conventions of which you speak have some sense to them, but I don't believe they would improve the user experience. Can't stand the buttons on devices like the sony, which are terribly painful to push, in my case.
So shoot me. I think Bezos got it right.
Post a Comment
So shoot me. I think Bezos got it right.
# posted by : December 9, 2007 8:08 PM
: December 9, 2007 8:08 PMLinks to this post:
<< Home
